Shifting grounds: how industry emergence changes the effectiveness of knowledge creation strategies - the case of the US automotive airbag industry

This paper investigates the effect industry life cycle phase shifts have on the effectiveness of firms’ knowledge creation strategies. Building on literature streams on strategic knowledge management and industry life cycles, we develop theoretical arguments for why the best knowledge search strategy should be different before the emergence of an industry compared to afterwards. Testing our hypotheses empirically in the emerging U.S. automotive airbag industry confirms the powerful forces of industry emergence: the best knowledge search strategy is initially one that looks inward into the organization but outside of the technology area, and later shifts to one that is looking outward from the organization and the technology. As practical implication we derive that R&D managers should (i) adjust their teams’ knowledge search strategies depending on the industry life cycle phase in which they find themselves, and (ii) especially look for new applications of their firm’s existing knowledge in related fields.